Sorry, You're Not A Winner
by laraandkurtisfan97
Summary: Rogue can't forget what happened, and knows that nothing is stopping it from happening again. Someone is up to something; she needs to figure out what. She knows that when the time comes, she'll have to sacrifice everything. Even those she holds dear...
1. Get Your Own

**Okay, well, hello there, fellow FanFiction-ers :) This is my first X-Men: Evolution fanfic, so please be kind. I hope it's okay. It's kinda based on a dream...obviously, it was an amazing dream, 'cause Remy LeBeau was in it. It's a Romy, with some drama and a teeeennny bit of action when it comes to it. I like action, but it isn't one of those fics. Well, that's a lie, there will be a whole chapter of action, but that's it, really...**

**Anyway, onwards! I hope you enjoy!**

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><p>The storm is what woke her up.<p>

Rogue Unknownlastname rolled onto her back in her bed, glaring with envy as Kitty Pryde slept like a log. She hadn't slept properly in weeks – not since what happened with Apocalypse – and found that it was her own personal fears getting in the way of her sleep. Memories of that day plagued her mind, and she found that her imagination only accelerated the fear of her past.

Dumbass imagination.

Rogue let out a puff of air as she stared up at the ceiling, blowing the white fringes of her hair out of her face. She had been this close – _this close – _to falling asleep. The first real sleep she would have had in weeks; and then that stupid storm had to roll around and startle her awake.

She didn't really want to reflect on _why _the past still worried her, but she found that her mind wandered there anyway. She was scared. Scared that it would happen again, and that when it did, she would kill all her friends. It wasn't hard for Mesmero to hypnotize her, and even less difficult to actually absorb everyones powers then. So what would happen the next time some smartass decided to stroll on over and take advantage of her abilities?

_It won't happen, it won't happen..._

Yeah. Just you keep telling yourself that.

Kitty made a weird contained noise in the back of her throat, which turned into an outright snore. For someone so small and sweet, she made an awful lot of noise.

Rogue resisted the urge to groan, flinging an arm over her eyes as she squeezed them shut. It didn't work. Flashes of lightning shone behind her arm, thunder crackled overhead, and Kitty snorted.

Just as she suspected, sleep wasn't going to envelope her too soon.

Rogue swung her long legs over the side of the bed, resting her heads in her hands. What was _wrong _with her? It had been at least two months since the fight with Apocalypse, so why couldn't she just accept that the fight was over and done with? Two months since the X-Men, the Brotherhood, and the Acolytes had saved the world. Of course, one specific Acolyte hadn't been there for the fight...

_Shut up, shut up, shut up. _

There was one more reason to why Rogue seemed to be evading sleep lately, though. And that reason came in the form of a certain well-defined Cajun thief...

_Shut up, _she told herself, scraping her hair back from her face. _You are _not _going to start thinking about him..._

Obviously, telling herself to do something was a lot easier than actually doing it.

Upon Kitty letting out another snore, Rogue decided that she wasn't going to be getting any sleep any time soon. Sp she got to her feet, feeling the soft fabric of the carpet on her bare feet, and closed the short space to the teens' en suite bathroom. Grabbing a bobble from the side of the sink, and shoved her short hair into a tight ponytail before splashing cool water onto her poisoned skin.

She fumbled about blindly in the darkness, eyes squeezed shut, finally finding the hand towel and patting her face dry. She _hoped _it was a towel, anyway...living in this house, she was probably drying her face with someone's used underwear.

She didn't really want to think about that, so once her eyes were open – averting her gaze _away _from the towel-underwear-thing – she found the tumbler that Kitty and her always kept in the bathroom in case they needed a drink.

She took a gulp of the refreshing water, remembering something she had been told as a kid: _"Water always chases away the nightmares."_

Yeah, she wished.

She walked back through to the bedroom, noticing how Kitty was now sprawled on the side of the bed, arm hanging off the edge, snoring her pretty little head off.

Was that _drool _on her pillow?

Rogue stifled a laugh, picking up her favourite hoodie (a souvenir from a Bullet For My Valentine concert, obviously) and shrugging it on before taking a glance out of the balcony window. The storm was fading, but the damn wind that had woken her up was still going strong. Stupid New York.

She missed Mississippi.

It wasn't so much the fact that she was away from everyone and everything she knew...well, it was, but there were other reasons behind it as well. She missed the Southern parts of the country, and found it annoying that the rest of the X-Men sometimes had trouble understanding what she had said; she missed the weather, and the secluded town she had lived in; she didn't like having to make a new life for herself, even if she did have help.

And she didn't like having to accept what she was, and what she could be.

Most people argued that she was the most powerful of the X-Men. And, yeah, they were probably right. If pushed, she could absorb pretty much anyone – and she had done just that. But that was the problem – who would stop it from happening again? She had almost caused the destruction of the freaking _Earth. _

On top of that, everyone treated her like she could explode any moment. She understood that they had to take care around her, because she was highly strung, and on top of that, deadly. But she wasn't some bomb, and she wished that everyone could at least pretend to not be whispering behind her back. There was only one person who hadn't acted like that, and he had been too forward for his own damn good.

Rogue reluctantly felt her gaze fall on her bedside table. A Victorian lamp sat there, casting a large shadow on the rest of the room; then it was her alarm clock; just a little ways down from that, there was a framed picture of her, Kurt and Kitty, Kurt in his natural blue fuzzy form while they all laughed over something unseen. On a day out, the five of them – Bobby and Scott had come along as well – had visited a park in the twilight, hoping for a makeshift game of softball (there were only five players, after all). Bobby had been fooling about, and had "accidentally" thrown an ice cube down Scott's back, making the oldest of the group jump and snap a picture while the rest of the group laughed. It had been before Apocalypse, and Rogue yearned for those days to come back. It wasn't the same now.

Her gaze fell on the last item on the table, and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The Queen of Hearts card that Gambit had kissed and then discreetly handed to her the night he oh-so-charmingly kidnapped her just lay there, haunting and compelling. Haunting because it was a trademark of something that she couldn't understand, and probably never would, and it always seemed to stare accusingly at her, and compelling because whenever she looked at it, it made her want to find out more about it's previous owner.

She hadn't seen him since that night, and if she was completely honest with herself, she wanted to know what he was doing.

Rogue shook her head, as if that would make the thoughts go away. It wouldn't, but whatever, it was worth a try.

She pulled on a pair of bed socks. Taking one last glance at Kitty, now halfway from falling off the bed, she exited the bedroom to go for a midnight snack.

She crept along the hallway, careful not to wake anyone up. Just because she couldn't sleep didn't mean that everyone else shouldn't, as well.

The only sounds in the mansion came from the grandfather clock in the hall, tick-tocking loudly into the darkness. The lightning flashed threateningly over the massive space through the huge windows, and Rogue made a beeline for the kitchen. The more she thought about it, the hungrier she got.

Eventually she reached the kitchen. She reached up into a cupboard to find her bowl – a smiley face with fangs and blood dripping from them – and then proceeded to rake about in the fridge for the chopped strawberries she _knew _were there. Well, unless Logan had eaten them. He wasn't big on the healthy food, just food in general.

Making a satisfied sound when she found the plastic tub containing the red fruit, she opened it up and dumped the food into her bowl. Then was the banana; she grabbed one out of the fruit bowl and chopped it up on a chopping board before dumping that in as well. She finally picked a couple of grapes, and then, just because she figured her bowl was looking a bit _too _healthy, she went searching for the Nutella jar that Kitty had hidden in the back of the cupboard.

Sure enough, when she looked hard enough, she found the jar of chocolate. A label with Kitty's most violent threat was stuck onto the front of it:

"_Kitty's jar. Get your own. I mean it. I WILL phase you into the floor."  
><em>

Smirking, Rogue untwisted the cap and dumped a generous amount of chocolate on top of the fruit.

Sorry, Kitty.

_Not really. _

Rogue sat down with her snack at the table, munching on it as she gazed around the room. It was dark, so she couldn't see much, but she could make out Bobby's battered red Converse shoes and her own Doc Martens by the back door. Some undone homework sat on the counter by the small television, and someone had left an iPod playing next to it. She got up to switch it off, licking her spoon clean, before she noticed a dark profile standing by the door.

She froze, instantly sensing danger, her grip on the spoon tightening before Logan stepped out of the darkness and into the faint light coming from the window.

"Logan," she sighed, sliding into the chair again and crossing her legs. "I thought you were someone else – Ah was ready to scoop your eyes out."

Logan ran a hand through his bedhead hair, only giving a grunt as a reply while he flicked the kettle on. He was dressed in only a pair of sweatpants, and the only thing that kept Rogue from checking out his toned chest was the fact that he was like a father to her. He slid into the chair opposite her.

"What you eating?" He asked, voice groggy.

"Junk, really," she replied, proving her point by shoving a spoonful of Nutella into her mouth.

"That'll do your insides in, kid," He mumbled, getting up to get his cup ready before pouring some coffee grains into it.

Rogue shrugged. "So? It's got fruit in it. Anyway," she mumbled around the chocolate, "Sgood."

Logan grunted again before pouring the now boiled water into his cup. He glanced over at Rogue, taking in her hoodie, tartan shorts, bed socks and bed rumpled hair. Even though she knew it wasn't the best idea to be wearing shorts with poisoned skin, it was still summer – even if the weather wanted to prove otherwise. It was hot at night.

"Couldn't sleep?" He asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

Rogue shook her head. "Couldn't if Ah tried. Kitty's snorin' so loud, she'll probably swallow the entire room."

He nodded, turning to head out the door. "I'll be awake if you need me. Got crap to fill out," and with that parting shot, he headed for bed.

Rogue had a funny feeling that Professor Xavier wouldn't be too thrilled to hear Logan call his work crap, but she would have said the same thing, had she been in his position.

The rain was letting up, apparently – the hammering against the window was lighter now. Pattering, even. That gave her an idea.

She finished off the rest of her food before filling it with water and dumping it in the sink. As far as Rogue was concerned, it was someone else's job to clean it now. She walked back upstairs, careful to not make too much noise again, before tiptoeing into her bedroom.

Kitty had now inched her way closer to the edge of the bed _even further. _Rogue decided that it was drool that was lying on her pillow, cringing as she saw the hair of Kitty's ponytail lying in the liquid. Another snore.

_If she makes noise like that, she deserves ta wake up with saliva hair. _

Rogue crossed the room to the wardrobe – pointedly not looking at the card on her bedside table – and pulled out a pair of jeans. She pulled them over her shorts, deciding to keep the bed socks on while she ransacked the bottom of her wardrobe for her favourite pair of boots.

Finally finding them, she crossed over to her bed and fell down onto it, tying her boots up and sorting the jean legs over them. Next she searched through her top drawer to find a suitable pair of gloves, settling for a pair of wrist-length black fingerless ones. Nobody would be about to touch, she figured, but it was good to take the precaution anyway.

She walked over to the bedside table to pull out some cash – just in case – and an umbrella, in case the rain started up again. She pulled her ponytail tighter, closing the drawer with her hip before she caught sight of the Queen of Hearts. Fighting an inner battle, she finally decided to take it and place it into the back pocket of her jeans. She didn't know what made her suddenly want to take it with her, but she had a...feeling...that she might be needing it.

As Rogue turned to the balcony – she figured that a stealthy exit would be better than waking everyone up by using the heavy front doors – Kitty made a noise and rolled right off the bed. She let out a surprised gasp, eyes flying open as half her body phased through the floor. "Crap," she muttered. "Like, not _again._"

Rogue froze, half wanting to burst out laughing at Kitty, half hoping that her roommate hadn't spotted her, because then she wouldn't be able to leave.

Kitty rubbed the sleep from her eyes, taking in her surroundings and coming out of the floor. She stood up, yawned, grabbed the blankets and flopped back down into her bed, sighing contentedly.

Rogue breathed a sigh of relief, starting towards the balcony doors again -

Until Kitty stopped her by saying, "Rogue? Where you going?"

Rogue scrunched her eyes shut. Busted.

"For a walk," she replied, glancing over her shoulder at Kitty, whose eyes were closed.

"How come?" Kitty yawned.

_What's up with the twenty questions? _Rogue thought. _It's not like I'm some isolated weirdo that needs to be watched 24/7. _

But what she said was, "Just to clear my head." Which was true.

"Hmm." Kitty mumbled, turning onto her other side. "Have fun."

Rogue watched her for a second, waiting for her breathing to slow down before whispering "Night, Kitty," and turning towards the balcony.

The rain had let up, which was good. The wind wasn't as bad, either, but the war between the thunder and lightning was still going on. Rogue pulled the sleeves of her hoodie further over her hands and began closing the doors behind her after she stepped out.

"Rogue?" Kitty's muffled voice sounded from inside the room. Rogue poked her head around the door.

"Yeah?"

Kitty didn't lift her head. "You can totally, like, eat your own Nutella next time."

Rogue smiled as she closed the balcony doors, trapping herself out in the cold. Quickly casting a glance over the grounds of the Institute, Rogue grabbed a hold of the balcony railings and hoisted her legs over them. The drop to the ground wasn't that far; the biggest injury she was likely to get was swollen ankles.

She dropped to the damp ground, landing in a crouch before standing up.

And then she turned around to walk into the consuming darkness.

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><p><strong>What do you think? <strong>

**I hope it's okay so far :S **

**I've got the next chapter written, so hopefully if I get good reviews, that'll be up soon. Please review, I really want to know what you think :) **

**~L&KFan97~**


	2. Destabilise

**Happy Father's Day, UK people...at least I think it's just Father's Day in the UK...hmm. **

**Anyway, thank you everyone for the reviews, alerts, favourites, and just reading in general :L **

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><p>Remy LeBeau was not impressed.<p>

He deserved it – there was no doubt about it. Betraying trust and all that. But it was getting taken a little bit _too _far when Pyro decided to burn his bacon this morning. Bacon that could have been placed between two nice healthy pieces of wholemeal bread, and then decorated with a huge dollop of brown sauce. Bacon that was perfectly fried, and would have filled the entire house with a mouthwatering aroma.

Hmm...bacon.

But, no, Pyro just had to saunter along and ruin it.

The entire team of Acolytes had been giving him the cold shoulder since he had come back from his little trip to Louisianan with Rogue. They hadn't appreciated him conversing with the enemy, and quite rightly so. When a team was made up solely of thieves, brutes, and other forms of double-crossers, you couldn't particularly trust any of them. So it shouldn't have been that surprising when Remy had gotten a little bit friendly with the enemy. Still, Jean-Luc was in trouble, and Remy owed him that much to rescue him, and the only way for that to actually happen would be for Rogue to help him. He had thought it had been strategic, and had actually thought ahead for once.

But now the Acolytes were less than chuffed with this fact, and so he was being given the cold shoulder. Or the outright "I-wish-you-were-dead-you-backstabbing-piece-of-scum" shoulder.

He didn't really mind it; he was used to it, even. The tricks that Pyro had played on him were all taken with a pinch of salt, because he knew that it could be worse than pranks. Hell, if they wanted, they could have killed him. So he welcomed it, almost. Ignored it.

But burning his bacon? That was just _too _far.

Remy had left the room for, what? A minute? And when he came back, lying on top of the bread set out on the chopping board were his slices of bacon. They looked normal, but the stench in the air was unmistakeable: someone had burned them. And etched in charcoal along the bacon was:

"_You're in our debt, mate."_

Oh, really? He hadn't figured that out.

He was looking forward to that bacon sandwich, as well.

Something moving across the road caught his eye. He glanced up and out of the shadows, spotting swarms of students piling out of the Bayville High School front doors. He straightened from his leaning position again the wall and scanned the crowd for the white-and-black haired southerner he knew was lurking about somewhere.

From the advantageous spot of the alley opposite the school, he spotted some of the other X-Men laughing and socialising: the furry one, Kurt, and One-Eye. He spotted the red head too, and eventually their little group was met with the really preppy one...what was it? Oh, Kitty. Eventually, he saw Rogue meet up with them, looking anguished and depressed while the rest of the group laughed.

Remy raised an eyebrow. Rogue hadn't appeared too happy in quite some time.

He wouldn't mind admitting to what he was doing: he was stalking her. But not in some creepy way. Well, okay, _maybe _in some creepy way, but he was looking out for her. He had been doing it before he kidnapped her, and he would continue to do so until she didn't need anyone watching out for her any more.

He narrowed his eyes as he took in the way she appeared to be sighing at everything, the way she tensed whenever someone called her name. She seemed to be excluding herself from everyone else, adopting a kind of standoffish manor. Her eyes scanned the shadows around her, scanned every face for any sign of threat, and eventually, when she found no immediate danger, she relaxed and let Kitty tug her along to Scott's car.

Smirking, Remy turned around. Rogue obviously wasn't that good at searching for anything out of the ordinary – she had missed him standing across the road staring at her, after all.

He wasn't sure how long he had been going about this, but the routine was the same. He would watch her travel to school in the morning and then leave it in the afternoon; sometimes when she left to get lunch somewhere off campus, he was there to watch out for her. Outside the Institute, if he was standing in just the right spot, he could see her reading the latest dark romance book while lying on her bed, and if the windows were open, he could hear the banging of metal core filling his ears.

Okay, he was stalking her in a _totally _creepy way.

What? He's Remy LeBeau, it's what he does best.

Eventually he reached his bike, mounting it and revving the engine before speeding away to the Acolyte's base.

Rogue would be okay. For now.

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><p>"Where ya been, mate? Spyin' on your Sheila again?" Pyro asked, blowing a heart made of flames in the sky. He skipped backwards as Remy marched forwards.<p>

Remy ignored him, pushing the door to the base open while he continued to march forward. Just what he needed: First burnt bacon, and now Pyro himself. Yay.

Pyro got in front of him. "C'mon, no need to be like that. How is she?"

Remy pushed him aside, but Pyro only got back in his face. Remy stopped, closed his eyes for a brief second, and then opened them again to be met with Pyro's grinning face. "You _were _there, eh?"

"What does it matter to you? I'm my own man, I don' need to hold your hand to cross the road." Remy pushed past him again, mildly surprised when Pyro didn't follow him.

"So you were there. Hmm."

Ignoring him again, Remy stomped like a moody teenager to the dorms. He used the palm recognition plate to open his bedroom door, stepped in, and shrugged off his duster.

He spotted his throwing knives on a corner table. Picking them up, he twirled one around in his hand briefly before throwing it on the bulls-eye marked on the wall by the door. And that was exactly what he got, a bulls-eye.

He sat down on the bed, continuously throwing the knives like a drone. When he was finished a round, he went to collect them and started the process all over again.

Magneto was pissed. That much was clear. No matter how irritating his teammates tried to be, playing tricks or winding him up or just flat out being asses to him, the thing that really mattered was that Magneto wasn't a happy bunny. Eventually, Remy would have to face the fact that something bad, something irreversible, something that smelled like _death, _was going to happen, all because of his stupid adoptive father. It was Remy's fault again, because he should've known better than to enlist the help of an X-Man to help rescue Jean-Luc, but still. He did what had to be done, and now he was going to pay for it.

At best, he was hoping for some kind of punishment. That would be better than what he suspected Magneto would do with him. For a gang of villains, they had an awful lot of rules.

His door opened then, and Sabertooth appeared in the doorway, narrowly missing a knife that was making it's way to the bulls-eye.

Remy stood up, collecting his knives before leaning against the wall opposite Sabertooth. His fellow Acolyte just stood in the doorway, like some hairy...thing.

Remy sighed, throwing the knives down on the table and crossing his arms over his chest. "Well? You gonna come in, or are you jus' gonna stand there makin' a draft?"

Sabertooth grunted, taking one step into the room, just far enough that the door would close, but not far enough to actually pretend to know Remy.

Remy found that amusing; usually he was the one embarrassed to know Sabertooth. The dude wasn't exactly the best thing to use when picking girls up.

After a moment of awkward silence, Sabertooth finally spoke.

"Magneto's got plans for you, you know, Gambit," he said, picking at the fur on his coat.

"What sorta plans?" Remy raised his eyebrows.

"The type of plans low-lives like you love."

Remy's brow knitted together in mock insult. "Hey, watch it, Fluffy."

"So you're denying that you're a low-life." It wasn't a question.

"Nah, Remy is. Jus' don' wanna hear it from someone who looks like they need to shave their hair off and bathe themselves in bleach. Twice."

Sabertooth grunted again, turning to the door. "If you're not interested, I'll leave."

"Who said I wasn't interested?" Sabertooth turned around to face him. Remy nodded. "I'm listenin'."

"Magneto wants information on the X-Men."

"What's new?"

"Mesmero's in on it."

_This _caught Remy's attention. His eyes widened and his head snapped up. "Mesmero?"

Sabertooth nodded. "Something about an alliance. Sounds stupid to me, but I can't exactly tell Magneto what to do."

"Hold on a second. Are we talkin' about the same Mesmero that brainwashed some of the X-Men? Rogue? The Mesmero that we had to fight?"

Sabertooth grinned. "The same Mesmero. I don't know what's going on, but it can't be good."

"I thought he was dead." Sabertooth shrugged, and Remy waited a second before speaking. "You were sayin' about Magneto wantin' information?"

"Something about needing an insider to spot their weaknesses. There's been a bit of secrecy going on, and I've heard Pyro and Magneto talking about new recruits. Apparently he's planning on staging them against the X-Men, contrasting powers and all that."

Remy guessed the next bit. "And he wants to know who to put against who."

He knew in the back of his head that it was _who to put against whom, _but he was a Cajun boy. He had nothing if he didn't have his accent.

He didn't let Sabertooth continue. "And he wants me to be the insider."

Sabertooth nodded again. "He figured you'd be best for the job, what with your ties to that Rogue girl and everything."

It sounded like a foolproof plan, but Remy wasn't sure. Yes, he needed a way to redeem himself, and yes, this was the perfect opportunity. But he didn't want to do it, not at the price it would have. Even if it would get him back in Magneto's good books, was it really worth it? He knew that Rogue was the reason he didn't want to do it, but who would he admit it to? He avoided it instead, tackling the question at a different angle.

"Since when did Magneto take orders from Mesmero?" Remy asked, leaning against the wall again.

"Since Mesmero hypnotised him."

Sabertooth didn't particularly sound all that bothered that his boss had been hypnotised. No, correction: Sabertooth didn't sound all that bothered that someone who could possibly be one of the most advanced and powerful mutants there ever was, had been hypnotised.

Remy shook his head. "I ain't doin' it. No point, jus' for it to end in another war."

Sabertooth glared at him. "You don't really have a choice, LeBeau."

Remy smirked, flicking a card out from between his pocket with two gloved fingers and charging it. "You wanna tell me that again, Fluffy?"

Sabertooth bared his teeth. "You're doing it. We need this."

"_You _need this. I can quit and join the X-Men any time I want." A sudden thought occurred to him. "What if I quit?"

"Then you're dead. So think wisely about what you want to do."

Remy _did _think it over. It sounded good, but stupid. It was a free pass to getting closer to Rogue, but it would only make him lose her again. It would kill a lot of people, probably even himself.

But if it meant that he wouldn't have any more burnt bacon...

"Fine," He sighed. "I'll do it."

Sabertooth smiled, something that looked alien on him. "Thought so."

And with that, he turned around and left the room.

Remy fell down on his bed, raking a hand through his hair. This was going to go so bad...

But then, on a second thought, it didn't have to be. He had wormed his way out of worse situations than this, and he knew _exactly _how to do that. If it came to it, that is.

Plus, he got to see Rogue. No more stalking, no more hiding in the shadows. He could openly annoy Rogue. Openly make her want to tear her hair out, openly aggravate her until she felt like screaming.

No, Remy LeBeau was going to enjoy this.

He didn't even know what he had to do yet, exactly: he figured that he would have to run that little query by Magneto first.

Remy wanted his card back. The Queen of Hearts, the one he had given to Rogue. It wasn't so much that he wanted it, as he felt like he needed it. That had been an act of something too honest for Remy to own up to. After all, he _had _called that card his "lucky lady" and then given it to Rogue. Something stupid to do, he guessed. So he was going to take it back, somehow, just to prove that he could change at any time he wanted. Just to prove that he didn't care for Rogue.

He pushed off the bed, shouldering his duster on again and sauntering out of the door. On the way out, he noticed a storm picking up outside the windows; rain hammering down and creating puddles on the ground; wind violently blowing trees this way and that; thunder and lightening in a waging battle.

He briefly registered Pyro asking him where he was going before hearing him mutter "to see the Sheila, no doubt" and getting back to his own business.

Remy reached outside, jogging to his bike as he fought against the wind.

He was going to find Rogue – and actually talk to her – just to get a taster of what fun he could be having for the next few months.

And while he was at it, he would get his card back.

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><p><strong>Well, that's another chapter finished. <strong>

**I hope you enjoyed it; I'll update as soon as I can. **

**~L&KFan97~ :] **


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